Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Jamal Igle On His One Year Anniversary on Supergirl


It’s hard to believe that it has been a year since the Supergirl renaissance in her title starting in Supergirl #34. Over on Jamal Igle’s blog, he posts about the one year anniversary of his time on Supergirl (http://jamaligle.blogspot.com/2009/10/supergirl-one-year-later.html). Here is his post:

Before I left for Jamaica, the day before I left I turned in the last seven pages of Supergirl #46. 12 issues ago I was announced as the artist of the series. In fact at the time I started working on it Catie was 4 months old, Karine had just returned to work a few weeks before and we were trying to figure out how to be parents.

I'm still trying to figure out the parenting thing however so much has happened. I came to the project with some preconceived notions and was happily disappointed, not just by Sterling's immense talent as a writer but the whole experience of working with the Superman characters.I want to say thanks to all of you who've supported our run. I want to say thanks to Nei Ruffino, Keith Champagne, Jon Sibal, Tom Chu, Pete Pantanzis and Jared Fletcher, I'm enjoying the work more than I have any project in a while and proud to have you guys as my partners. Thank you Matt Idelson, Nachie Castro, Wil Moss, Sean Ryan and Geoff Johns for giving me the shot. I was in Matt Idelson's office discussing what's going to be happening with issue 50 and it's gonna be nuts. It's just the beginning to Supergirl 2010 and I'm proud to be a part of it!


I was interested about Igle’s ‘preconceived notions’ about the title and was trying to think back that far. At this point last year, Kelley Puckett’s ‘Saving Thomas’ storyline had just ended with a thud. There were some high points to that arc (a suddenly caring Supergirl willing to bend the rules to help someone, some nicely timed humor, Drew Johnson’s art) but overall the Supergirl character felt lost.

She was still reeling from her characterization under Jeph Loeb and Joe Kelly. Their Supergirl was angry, angsty, apathetic to others, unheroic. She was, at least to me, unlikeable.

The uneven approach to Kara over the length of the series made the book almost unreadable. And sales showed that.

So I asked Igle what his preconceived notions were and got an eloquent response that pretty much mirrored my own thoughts.


Well the big one was, I didn't like what they had done with the character. I'm not a fan of Jeph Loeb's writing work, I just found her to be unappealing as a character. You have to like the characters you're working with or it's just not worth the effort. So when I was approached about doing it I asked who the writer was and find out it's some new guy I'd barely heard about named Sterling Gates. Not to sound egotistical but I've worked with some of the best writers in the business So Sterling had, at the time, a lot to prove to me. So when I read the script to issue #34 (which I can say now is the script that got him the job on the book in the first place) I was blown away by how good he was and how much love he had for Kara.

I'm old School, I've been reading the Superman books since I was 5 years old and while I don't have Mark Waid's encyclopedic knowledge I consider my self to be a huge Superman fan. I cried when kara died during Crisis, and as much fun as the Byrne relaunch was there were always things missing from the lore (Kandor, The Superpets, the connection to the Legion, The old school Lex Luthor because I hated the idea of Lex luthor having so much pull and being a corporate tycoon.) So when they brought her back as Clark's cousin I was thrilled until I read the first 5 issues of the regular series. It was a 40 year old man's concept of what an edgy teenage girl was supposed to be and it just didn't work for me as a fan.

All the things he says about the Kara that came before are exactly what I was thinking last year. I still think of that cover of a crystal gun wielding Supergirl standing over her dead classmates. Something was simply fundamentally wrong.

When the Gates and Igle team was announced, I thought to myself ‘it can’t get worse’ … damning with faint praise. I had never read anything that Sterling Gates had written. Would he try to bring back the Loeb version? Could a ‘rookie’ writer somehow save the book? I honestly thought the title was doomed for cancellation.

But the thing was, I can remember reading interviews with Gates when he was announced and he just said all the right things about Supergirl. He sounded liked he loved the character and wanted to bring her back to a semblance of the heroic Girl of Steel I grew up reading. After reading those interviews - many of which I covered here starting last June - I was suddenly, albeit cautiously, optimistic.

So here we are a year later … a year where Supergirl is suddenly a solid-selling title, a year where Supergirl as a character is suddenly a vital part of not only the Superman family but the DCU as a whole.

Funny how much can change in a year.

So, what were you guys thinking last year with Supergirl #34 just about to be released?

8 comments:

Saranga said...

Well, i'm probably one of the few people that has consistently liked this volume of Supergirl.
Please bear in mind that I had never read any old school Kara from before the crisis, so had nothing to compare it to.

Although I liked the majority of the previous issues, I never felt that they fitted together well.
Each new creative team had a completely different arc, plot, backstory to the previous writing teams, with the end result of the volume as a whole feeling like lots of alternate Karas. Each had their good points.

So when hearing that there would be an ongoing team, I felt relieved that we would get ongoing continuity, and curious to see what they would do with it.

TalOs said...

With all due respect to both Jamal and Anj I was one of those that actually liked what Jeph did with her upon her reintroduction Post-Crisis at the time (I even sent private emails to Jeph telling him this) as well as what both Greg Rucka and Joe Kelly had envisioned for her too. (On Facebook some time ago now Joe even was kind enough to fill me in on what he had in store for his particular run and I just loved what he told me.)

It's no secret that I have had a love/hate relationship come Sterling taking over the reigns (that's currently back to being love by the way, heh) and upon Jamal taking over as artist I've just swooned over how unbelievably spectacular he has made the title through his truly gorgeous art which never disappoints issue to issue.

Man I am awaiting with MUCH anticipation for Supergirl #50 to come out and I truly hope that not only is it gonna be double sized but will have us all fans seeing Sterling and Jamal's much talked about all new costume finally being given the ok from PTB at DC for Kara to finally seen wearing henceforth. :)

Anyways, Happy One Year Anniversary, Sterling and Jamal! :D

P.S. I just can't believe Supergirl is actually celebrating her 50th anniversary milestone this year still! I mean WOW!

Jason said...

Sterling Gates and Jamal Igle have really turned this book around and taken Kara back to her classic roots and made her a likeable character for me again - including the "Linda" alter ego (though I wish they had gone all the way here with the Silver Age homage and made her secret ID "Linda Lee" again instead of "Linda Lang."). I can't believe it's been a year either! They have done a SUPER job! Keep up the good work, guys!

Gene said...

Sterling and Jamal was a breath of fresh air a year ago because many of Supergirl's stories up to that point did not make much sense to me. The cover to #34 is iconic because the article title "Why the World does not need a Supergirl" reflected Sterling's and Jamal's only chance to prove to everyone why Kara is relevant in the DC Universe, and they succeeded.

It was too bad Sterling and Jamal did not have a chance to do more with Kara before New Krypton hit, but I feel they have handled her pretty well these past 12 months. May their time with Supergirl be long and fruitful.

Anj said...

Although I liked the majority of the previous issues, I never felt that they fitted together well.
Each new creative team had a completely different arc, plot, backstory to the previous writing teams, with the end result of the volume as a whole feeling like lots of alternate Karas. Each had their good points.


Thanks for the post.

You are probably the best evaluator since you came in with no prior exposure to Supergirl.

Since I was going in with all sorts of baggage/expectations I might not easily see the good points of the early issues.

Anj said...

Man I am awaiting with MUCH anticipation for Supergirl #50 to come out and I truly hope that not only is it gonna be double sized but will have us all fans seeing Sterling and Jamal's much talked about all new costume finally being given the ok from PTB at DC for Kara to finally seen wearing henceforth. :)

Thanks for the post.

I don't know where the rumor of a new costume started but I have heard it too. I wonder if we will see one.

Anj said...

Sterling Gates and Jamal Igle have really turned this book around and taken Kara back to her classic roots and made her a likeable character for me again - including the "Linda" alter ego (though I wish they had gone all the way here with the Silver Age homage and made her secret ID "Linda Lee" again instead of "Linda Lang.").

Thanks for the post.

I think both Igle and Gates used that word 'likeable' in some of those early interviews. And I agree they have done a lot to improve her character.

I hope to see more Linda soon too.

Anj said...

It was too bad Sterling and Jamal did not have a chance to do more with Kara before New Krypton hit, but I feel they have handled her pretty well these past 12 months. May their time with Supergirl be long and fruitful.

Thanks for the post.

I agree. It was a double edged sword. It probably brought in new readers who were only on board because of the links to Superman. But it also moved Supergirl away from some more Kara-centric rather than Krypton-centric plots.

It looks like that might be changing soon.